After 18 months, the trial has finally begun for two of the organizers of 2022’s Freedom Convoy that shut down downtown Ottawa for three weeks. It is going to be interesting to watch.

Probably everyone has an opinion on the Convoy, but that’s not what the trial is about. Those on trial have been charged with mischief, obstructing police, intimidation and counselling mischief. These are very minor charges in the Criminal Code pantheon, but I guess police figured they have to go with something in which they stand a chance of obtaining a conviction.

This is not akin to the ongoing trials in the USA, where some of those involved in the January 6, 2021, insurrection in Washington have been sentenced to up to 22 years in jail. Convoy protestors aren’t being charged with sedition. They wanted a change in government, and rather naively thought protest could accomplish that, but they stormed no buildings.

Mischief carries with it a relatively small sentence, despite the Crown suggesting the penalty could be up to ten years. That would only be in the case of damage to property – and shutting down the streets doesn’t constitute damage to property, at least not as I understand the law. Whether it should be is perhaps a matter for Parliament to address.

Certainly there is enough video footage to make a conviction easy, theoretically anyway. I suspect though that the prosecution may find it difficult to prove intent. The defendants cannot be held in law to be responsible for police failure to clear out their demonstration.

Or maybe I don’t understand the law and that is indeed what will happen. Certainly those who have filed civil suits are hoping for a conviction. Without one their cases will be a lot weaker.

Back in my days as a student protestor, we understood that civil disobedience came with the risk of arrest and incarceration. I was never in a situation where that was likely, but it was something I thought about. Certainly those on trial have already spent time in jail, maybe more than if they had just plead guilty. It took awhile to arrange bail, When I was a newspaper reporter on the court beat, those convicted of mischief were fined, not jailed.

It will be interesting to see if this trial can be kept from becoming political. Because if politics gets involved that makes it more likely that the administration of justice will be brought into disrepute. This isn’t about the cause (an end to COVID mandates) but whether the defendants broke the law. There are those though who want to make it about what the government did or didn’t do.

Perhaps some people will argue that the system itself is on trial. I hope it doesn’t come to that. This should be a straightforward case settled on the facts, not swayed by emotion or views on government policy.

The only thing that is really guaranteed at this point is that, no matter the outcome, a lot of people are going to be unhappy at the verdict. Which won’t happen until at least the end of October. In Canada, as in many other places, the wheels of justice grind slowly.